Southport: Angus Downie, 1956. First edition. 8ov. 200 pp. Printed by Merseyside Press Ltd. Absent dustjacket.

A truly scarce and true first edition of Kavan’s A Scarcity of Love. Published just after the midpoint of her career and following the financial failure of her novel Sleep Has His House, which saw her dropped by her Doubleday in the United States. Struggling to find a publisher Kavan paid Angus Downie to print only 500 copies, the majority of which were pulped after Downie went bankrupt. In the early 1970s, Peter Owen, after seeing success with her novel Ice, republished A Scarcity of Love alongside much of her bibliography. Unfortunately Kavan did not live to see much of this resurgence in her career as she passed away from heart failure in 1968.

A Scarcity of Love, despite its relative obscurity, is a wonderful example of the Kavanian style, combining semi-autobiographical work with haunting, dreamlike imagery. The novel follows the downward spiral a young girl finds herself in after being rejected by her cruel mother.

Black cloth board with gold text on spine. Slight lean to spine, with very small amount of wear to top and bottom. Very faint scratch to cover. Slight inward bend to top right corner. Very slight staining to top right corner pages. Slight inward bend to bottom back left corner. Small label from bookseller (Little Stour Books) on fixed end page. Despite the lack of dustjacket, this is an extremely scarce first edition in near very good condition.